James t



(No Model.) J. T. HAMBAY.

SIGNAL LINE GOMPENSATOR. No. 309,618. Patented Dec. 23, 18 84;.

ihvrrno drama JAMES T. HAMBAY, OF PITTSBURG,

Parent ,rricn.

PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE SIGNAL-LINE COMPENSATOR.

EEPEOEFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 309,618, dated December 23,1884.

Application filed February 15, 1883. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES '1. HAMBAY, of Pittsburg, county of Allegheny, State of Penn sylvania, have invented or discovered a new and useful Improvement in Signal-Line Gompensators, andl do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, concise, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of I 1:; this specification, in which-like letters indicating like parts- Figure 1 is a View in side elevation of so much of a signal-operating mechanismas is necessary to illustrate my present invention.

.- 5 Fig. 2 is a detached view, to an enlarged scale, of the interlocking mechanism of Fig. 1, but with the front plate removed 5 and Fig. 8 is an edge view of the devices of Fig. 2 and of a portion of the upper end of the mechanism connected therewith, but to one-half the scale of Fig. 2.

My present invention relatesto that class of railway signaling apparatus in which, by a lever or other like movement, a railway-signal at a greater or less distance is actuated or shifted, so as by one or the other of two different positions it may indicate danger or safety, as the case may require.

As a means of making connection from the 0 lever or from the cabin or stand occupied by the operator to the signal, a wire or wire rope or other like device is employed, and as this is subject to elongation and contraction under variations of temperature, it is important,

3 5 especially where the distance is considerable,

to provide some means by which such elongation, when it occurs, will be taken up automatically, and also by which contraction will be provided for. My invention is directed to this end, and I accomplish the purpose by the use of a gripping mechanism, which, acting 011 the principle of a grapple, or like a pair of tongs, or on the ratchet-and-pawl principle, shall interlock with or be disengaged from 5 a suitable device connected with the signal. The signal motions may be as desired; but preferably, when the gripping mechanism is out of action, the signal, under the action of a weight or spring, goes to its normal or danger position, and is shifted thence to a safety position only by the action of the proper lever, transmitted through the gripping mechanism and through the wire or other connection.

Any suitable lever or other signal-shifting mechanism may be employed; but for the purposes of illustration I have shown atAa portion of a Saxby and Farmer interlocking lever, such as is in common use, A being its pivotal point. The wire a (or its known substi- 5 tute) leads to the signal to be operated, and passes under the loose pulley P and over the loose pulley P, and is kept taut by a weight, W, which, however, should not be heavy enough to change the position of the signal 6 from what it otherwise would be. In the line of this connection I insert a rack-bar, c, toothed on one or both sides, preferably on both, or having its surfaces so shaped that it may be gripped or engaged by one or more 0 grappling devices, one form or construction of which is represented by the pawls c. The latter are pivoted, as at c, in a box, B, and the latter is by a pair of straps, b, hung tothe arm b of the lever A. The rack-bar cpasses 7 5 or plays freely through the box B, except when engaged by the pawls 0, so that the wire a may elongate freely, its slack being taken up by the weight XV, or may contract freely,

the weight WV then rising. The pawls 0', when not otherwise acted on, are pressed into engagement with the rack-bar c by means of spring 0 and plungers c'; but to provide for throwing them out of their interlocking engagement with the rack-bar c, I employ a trip device, which consists of two studs, d cl, which are affixed to ormade solidwith apendent rod, (Z, which latter may be secured to some fixed part of the cabin, as the floor or table A it only being essential that it should be in its proper position to throw the pawls out of engagement with the rack-bar when the latter has moved to such position as to bring or allow the signal to come to its reverse, or, say, itsdangerposition. Thenwhen thesignalis to be cleared the operator, by moving the lever A, draws upon the straps I), raises the box B so as to carry the pawls a clear of thestuds d, and then the springs 6 force the pawls into engagement with the teeth of the rack-bar c, and then the rack-bar must move up with the pawls and. box, and the wire (6 will be drawn in and the signal connected with its farther end will be correspondingly shifted. Reversal of the lever motion lowers the box B, and with it the rack-bar '0, until the pawls c engage the studs (2, as a result of which the pawls will be disengaged from the teeth of the raclrbar, and the line-connection from the weight W to the signal will be free to elongate or contract, as may result from variations of temperature. Of course the rack-bar should be as long, or approximately as long, as the greatest ordinary variation in the length of the line-connection a, and the pulleys P I should be far enough from its ends to admit of the operations described under variations of length, as aforesaid. I I

Instead of the rack andtwopawls, a singlefaced rack and one pawl may be employed, though in some respects less advantageously.

The vertical ribs 8 s of Fig. 2 are made solid with or as a part of the box B, and they performthe function of properly guiding the studs 61, or of keeping them in place with reference to their action in tripping the pawls c, as above described.

The straps b may at theirlowerends be connected with or be secured to plates n, by which to be bolted to the box B, or this connection may be otherwise, as desired.

I claim herein as my invention- 1. A toothed, serrated, or roughened bar, a, and a box, B, one arranged in the signal-line connection and the other connected with the lever movement, in combination with pawls c, pivoted to the box B, and adapted to engage the bar a, and fixed tripping-studs d, substantially as set forth.

2. The box B, having one or more pawls, 0, and springs e, in combination with bar 0 and stud or studs d, substantially as set forth.

8. A toothed, serrated, or roughened bar, 0, arranged in the signal-line connection, and a box, B, connected with the lever movement, in combination with a pawl or pawls adapted to effect the locking of the box and bar, and fixed tripping studs located in position to disengage said pawls from the bar by contact with the pawls at or near one end of the traverse of the bar, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination of the pulleys P P, the signal-line a, a bar, 0, interposed therein between said pulleys, weight WV, box B, withits pawls and springs, and rod (2, with its studs (2, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JAMES T. HAMBAY.

Vitnesses:

B. H. WHITTLnsnY, GEORGE H. CHRIsTY. 

